Passions of Kerala

My rating: Meet Expectation
Rating - Improvement Required, Below Expectation, Meet Expectation, Exceed Expectation, Outstanding

When my hubby first went to this restaurant with his boss, he was so excited to bring me here, as we both share the same interest - travelling and search for good food. This restaurant was featured in The Star before which you can read here. So Passions of Kerala is a banana leaf restaurant located in New World Park.

The main meal is of coz, rice and a few vegetable dishes which is called the Vegetarian Set which cost RM5.50 (price may changed). There's 2 types of rice, white rice and tomato rice, but we took the white rice. Next you can order the side dishes which can be lamb, chicken, seafood and vegetables cooked either in curry masala, black pepper, normal curry, sambal or fried. The first time we went there, we took crab masala, fried fish and I can't remember the other one :P My hubby chose Mango Lassi while I took Teh Tarik for drinks. I must admit, it's better to take the lassi coz it goes better with the spicy food *grin*

Anyway, we went there the 2nd time today and this time we took our little girl too. Again, we took the Vegetarian Set but this time with different dishes, and guess what? FISH HEAD CURRY! We also took 1 fried fish (bawal), small dish of chicken curry and small dish of lamb masala. Drinks - Mango Lassi of coz, I learnt my lesson :)

The Mango Lassi is good but not that yummy as we tried in Kassim Mustafa Restaurant in Little India. But the FISH HEAD CURRY is just SUPERB! MARVELOUS! MMMMMUUAHHH! The fish head is so big and fleshy that we were wondering what fish it was, and piping hot too! The rice is actually free flow so you can keep on asking them to add on, but for those on diet, all I can say is pity you! *Grin* Sorry we didn't take the photo os another dishes coz my girl was so hungry. But I must say, apart from the yummy fried fish which is crispy on the outside but fleshy on the inside, the other 2 dishes is considered so-so coz they are cold, maybe due to the air-conditioned hall??? But my girl loves the lamb masala so much!

So how mush does everything cost? RM70 and a few sen (I can't remember how many sen actually), with the fish head curry costing half of the whole price. Cheap huh? If you don't take the fish head curry, it may cost you less than RM40 so I take this as a good deal for good food *thumbs up*

Golden Sands Resort

Star rating: ****
My rating: ****

Since my hubby is working in KL and only return to Penang weekly, we have very limited time to go for vacations even when we badly need one. So during one of the public holidays, we decided to try Golden Sands Resort. The reason - papa wanted to go somewhere nearby as time is very limited, mama wanted a nice and cosy place (hopefully quite too), Nisa wanted to go to the beach and also swim in the pool, and Idlan..well he can't say out what he wanted but I know we would need a baby-friendly place, so after doing a bit of a research, mama booked a room there.

Checking in takes so long, apart from they only have 1-2 counters, the tourists had lots of questions to the staffs. I really appreciate their courtsey, friendliness and politeness, but with 2 kids who are getting more and more impatient, I was steaming up with fury by the time I had my turn, but the staff seems to be familiar with the situation and they gave the biggest smile which you can't resist *grin*

Anyway, cutting this short, we got to our room and it's comfy enough :)

The resort also got a kids zone, some kind of a toys/games park. To enter you have to pay about RM20 (price may changed now) and the kids have to wear long sleeves shirt and pants and also socks so please don't forget to bring those or you'll have to buy them there. Nisa really enjoyed the park. Then she had a dip in the pool too...

Breakfast buffet here is not so bad, lots of varieties and some you may not see in other hotels/resorts, but there were too many people due to the public holidays so we couldn't really enjoy it.

Overall we are happy with our stay here and maybe will return here again one day :)

Penang Bayview Beach Resort

Star rating: ****
My rating: ****


My daughter had been bugging us to go to the beach so I search the web for one in Penang since it's nearby so we can gi for the weekend without feeling tired when we returned. I saw the review in Cuti-cuti Malaysia web that the hotel's breakfast buffet is great so we booked the Deluxe Sea-view room on one of the weekends. The hotel has very limited parking so you have to try your luck to get the nearest parking to the hotel, or end up parking a bit further. I was a few months pregnant so my husband will drop us first before he went around for parking and pick us up when we are going out. My daughter loves the hotel's entrance and impressed with the lobby, mainly I think because it's the biggest she had seen so far =D


The room is ok, though we booked non-smoking, it still has the smoking smell. The aircond has it's own mood, sometimes too cold and sometimes feels like nothing at all, but we think it's funny enough not to be offended =) The sea-view was not really a sea-view because our room was at the end of the corner, so all we could see were sand and some trees. The breakfast buffet was just as the review said, so many varieties and quite a good taste too! This hotel is the first time my daughter really eats, usually we have a hard time persuading her to eat out because she likes home-cooked food but here, she happily had her breakfast =)

The pool and facilities it's just ok, but to a 2 year old, anything with lots of water is good enough, so my daughter had a great time with her dad =D We then took her to the beach. Bear in mind the resort does not own the beach, so that's why they do not say much about the beach on the web. There are water and beach activity facilities outside the resort area but painfully expensive. Once you step out of the resort area to the beach, the people doing business there started to swarm over you so becareful to ask the price first before letting them take over you. I thought the horse riding was free or the most would cost below RM20 but a less than 10 minutes ride cost RM40!

All and all, I think this is an ok hotel for us to return to, if we want a hotel by the beach with great food.

Penang Gurney Resort Hotel & Residence

Star rating: ****
My rating: ****

I first stayed in this hotel under my company's event which held a one-week bootcamp there. Since I was still breastfeeding at the time and my husband was also working in Penang with me, I took them all to stay with me. My husband needs to commute a bit far since the industrial area in on the other end of the island and the town area is in another end, but luckily the traffic was not as bad as we thought, so he didn't have much trouble. My daughter's babysitter is also in the industrial area, so every morning my husband will drop her off before work and pick her up after work =)
So back to the hotel, the staff are very polite and courteous, helpful enough when you ask them for anything, but when I talk to one of the chef, he said it's because my company has a reputation of complaining a lot, so that's why they were all so careful =D The only thing which I don't really in favor of this hotel is the lay-out, because they have different elevators to go to the residence rooms, hall/ballroom & parking and cafe. So during the bootcamp, we all keep having to turn here and there to get where we wanted =P

The room is a great satisfactory. The first time I stayed there for the bootcamp, we got the king-bed studio suite and the 2nd time when we went there for vacation, we got the twin-bed combined though we booked king-bed, but all rooms were fully booked due to school holiday. The bathroom is great! The bath-tub is a jacuzzi bath-tub and my daughter really loves it! Until now, even if we went to other hotels for vacation, she keeps expecting the bath-tub to have jacuzzi =D My husband loves this hotel because it's build for business stay with workstation so it's convenient for him.

Another thing my daughter loves is the kids pool. It has slides and sands and the shower mushrooms which really keeps her returning here during our stay. To me, this hotel is great for family vacation, apart from the facilities, it's close to the Gurney Plaza where you can shop & dine. You can also go to Feringgi at night for the night markets or even have a picnic at the public beaches in the day. In summary, it's strategically located to all convenience, so that's why my family loves it. The only thumb down for this hotel is the breakfast buffet which looks ok enough but tasteless. Their lunch was ok though. But all and all, I think we'll be returning here again maybe once a year for a short family vacation, since it's close to home and each of us found what we love best - my husband with the convenient to work while on vacation =P, my kids with the facilities and me with the shopping convenience =D